We Love America -- We’re Here to Fix It
Political Waves
AP reports that:
More than 70 New York protesters were arrested Saturday, more than 40 of them in Times Square. About 175 people were arrested in Chicago after they refused to leave a park where they were camped late Saturday, and there were about 100 arrests in Arizona — 53 in Tucson and 46 in Phoenix — after protesters refused police orders to disperse. About two dozen people were arrested in Denver, and in Sacramento, Calif., anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was among about 20 people arrested after failing to follow police orders to disperse.
Do open the link for some good pics. I especially appreciate the sentiments from the tundra:
"Occupy" the place where you are, right now, for truth and freedom and equality.
That's the whole dance, is it not?
The simplicity of this protest is now getting more and more complex, not only in demands that the group solidify their own list of demands .... to demands that they disperse. Having captured the zeitgeist and over $435,000 in donations to continue their occupation of America's financial center, this movement is maturing with the speed of light.
Authority, unaccustomed to being challenged, appears to be quaking and reacting rather than responding. We should gird ourselves for a hostile police presence as the default position, their having had serious crowd containment training on the other side of top-heavy Homeland Security funding. Over 300,000 illegal aliens, long detained and eventually shipped home by ICE this year, can attest to the governments ability to disappear some folks if they want to.
The more information we disperse, the more aware everyone is, the less they are able to detain and disperse US!
Occupy: the movement as defined by the best reads around. If you only have time for one, Don't Miss the moving Tomgram piece by Rebecca Solnit, linked as too long to reproduce here. Then make time for the rest because ... well ... we haven't done this in awhile. Consider it a refresher course in what and why.
This is the most important 'happening' for decades, dearhearts -- we need to follow it carefully.
Jude
WATCH: BofA Reportedly Refuses To Allow Protesters To Close Accounts
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/16/bank-of-america-protesters-close-accounts_n_1013490.html
VIDEO: 24 Arrested at Citibank for Attempting to Move Their
Money?
Sarah Jaffe | AlterNet
Sunday, October 16, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/?akid=7722.35475.uuF_QB&id=680944&rd=1&t=31
Author Naomi Wolf Speaks Out About Her Arrest At Occupy
Wall Street Protest
Jason Cherkis, HuffPo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/19/naomi-wolf-arrest-occupy-wall-street_n_1020986.html
... After a half hour in separate cells, Wolf and her partner were
released. She said a sergeant at the precinct told her she was arrested for a
“safety issue.” The cop didn’t dispute her claim that she wasn’t breaking the
law. But she said he explained that whenever police deem it a safety issue, they
can make an arrest ...
The police official then asked Wolf why she was
with Occupy Wall Street: “Why do you want to be with these people?” the official
asked. “I said I’m a New York City citizen and I believe in the First
Amendment,” she replied ...
We Have a First Amendment
Right to Protest - So Why All These Arrests Around Occupy Wall
Street?
Joshua Holland, Smirking Chimp
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/joshua-holland/39037/we-have-a-first-amendment-right-to-protest-so-why-all-these-arrests-around-occupy-wall-street
... the vast majority of those arrested in New York were charged
with disorderly conduct, a statute that prohibits people from making
"unreasonable noise," obstructing "vehicular or pedestrian traffic," or
congregating "with other persons in a public place” after receiving “a lawful
order of the police to disperse." Ratner notes that most of these “arrests won't
stand up,” but, in the words of former police chief John Timoney – the architect
of what's come to be known as the Miami model of aggressive crowd control – “you
can beat the wrap, but you can't beat the ride.” In other words, activists
subject to arrest may have their cases thrown out of court, but not before being
taken off the streets for a period of time ...
Tomgram:
Rebecca Solnit, This Land Is Your (Occupied) Land
Rebecca Solnit, Tom Dispatch
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175455/tomgram%3A_rebecca_solnit%2C_this_land_is_your_%28occupied%29_land/
Yesterday Paradox and I went down to Occupy Oakland—really inspiring!
It’s like a small village in front of City Hall, with tents crammed together, a
big kitchen, a media tent, a library and Free School, a long list of meetings
for each day, a calendar for the week—really a model of how these things might
go. The ground was layered with straw to keep down mud and pathways were laid
with pallets. There’s an ampitheater built into the plaza, where a beautiful
young woman was singing on a good sound system. A few of us were talking and
noticed an older, African-American man sitting in a lawn chair kind of at our
feet. We expanded our circle to include him, and he smiled.
“I ain’t
getting up,” he said, smiling. “I’m tired. I’m old. My feet are tired. But I’m
happy. This is beautiful. People getting together, peaceful. There’s a whole lot
of healing goin’ on here. People getting off drugs, alcohol. Working
together.”
“You make me happy,” I said. “I want to hug you or
something.”
“Hug me!” he stood up for that, and we hugged.
We
stayed for some of the General Assembly. They did something at the beginning
that I really like—an hour of what they call the Forum. The facilitators pose a
question, and people break into small groups to talk about it. Then they open
the mike for the rest of the hour for people to speak. The question was about
how we can respect ourselves and one another, and the speakers were the best
theater I’ve seen in a long time, each one different: the grinning young Asian
American woman who tells us that smiling is a revolutionary act, the red-haired
older woman who urges us to listen to one another, the graying leftist who
exhorts us to get back to why we’re here and organize the working classes, the
angy young man from the Black Panther Party who says he’s disgusted with the
whole thing, that real revolution is about bloodshed and long prison sentences,
and names the brothers who are still in prison from the sixties. And many people
who make simple, sensible suggestions for improving the camp, from picking up
garbage to connecting with your neighbors. Everyone gets a hearing. And because
the Forum is relieved from the necessity to make decisions, we can disagree, and
listen, and take what is of value to each of us while leaving the
rest.
Meanwhile I’m on the phone with a friend at Wall Street asking for
advice about dealing with the drummers who won’t stop drumming and are driving
the neighbors crazy—the ones who have been supportive and who persuaded
Bloomberg not to evict them but who might soon change their minds. I’m reading
reports from around the country of people struggling with the same issues—how do
we embrace diversity? How do we scale up direct democracy? How do we hold
meetings that are open to everyone yet efficient enough that they don’t drive
everyone out of their minds?
Meanwhile, on Sunday night the police in
riot gear raided Occupy San Francisco and confiscated most of their gear. They
have constantly been harassed and raided, and I am at a loss to explain why my
own city, arguably one of the most progressive towns in the USA, is so bent on
disrupting a peaceful protest. I will do my best to get down there today and
offer some support. ++
How to Frame Yourself: A Memo for
Occupy Wall Street
George Lakoff, Truthout
Wednesday 19 October
2011
http://www.truth-out.org/how-frame-yourself-framing-memo-occupy-wall-street/1319031142
I was asked weeks ago by some in the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement
to make suggestions for how to frame the movement. I have hesitated so far
because I think the movement should be framing itself. It's a general principle:
Unless you frame yourself, others will frame you - the media, your enemies, your
competitors, your well-meaning friends. I have so far hesitated to offer
suggestions. But the movement appears to be maturing and entering a critical
time when small framing errors could have large negative consequences. So, I
thought it might be helpful to accept the invitation and start a discussion of
how the movement might think about framing itself.
About framing: It's
normal. Everybody engages in it all the time. Frames are just structures of
thought that we use every day. All words in all languages are defined in terms
of frame circuits in the brain. But, ultimately, framing is about ideas, about
how we see the world, which determines how we act.
In politics, frames
are part of competing moral systems that are used in political discourse and in
charting political action. In short, framing is a moral enterprise: it says what
the character of a movement is. All politics is moral. Political figures and
movements always make policy recommendations claiming they are the right things
to do. No political figure ever says do what I say because it's wrong! Or
because it doesn't matter! Some moral principles or other lie behind every
political policy agenda.
Two Moral Framing Systems in
Politics
Conservatives have figured out their moral basis and
you see it on Wall Street: It includes: The primacy of self-interest. Individual
responsibility, but not social responsibility. Hierarchical authority based on
wealth or other forms of power. A moral hierarchy of who is "deserving," defined
by success. And the highest principle is the primacy of this moral system
itself, which goes beyond Wall Street and the economy to other arenas: family
life, social life, religion, foreign policy and especially government.
Conservative "democracy" is seen as a system of governance and elections that
fits this model.
As the world rises up against economic injustice,
Truthout brings you the latest news and analysis, free of corporate influence.
Help support this work with a tax-deductible donation today.
Though OWS
concerns go well beyond financial issues, your target is right: the application
of these principles in Wall Street is central, since that is where the money
comes from for elections, for media and for right-wing policy-making
institutions of all sorts on all issues.
The alternative view of
democracy is progressive: Democracy starts with citizens caring about one
another and acting responsibly on that sense of care, taking responsibility both
for oneself and for one's family, community, country, people in general and the
planet. The role of government is to protect and empower all citizens equally
via The Public: public infrastructure, laws and enforcement, health, education,
scientific research, protection, public lands, transportation, resources, art
and culture, trade policies, safety nets, and on and on. Nobody makes it one
their own. If you got wealthy, you depended on The Public and you have a
responsibility to contribute significantly to The Public so that others can
benefit in the future. Moreover, the wealthy depend on those who work and who
deserve a fair return for their contribution to our national life. Corporations
exist to make life better for most people. Their reason for existing is as
public as it is private.
A disproportionate distribution of wealth robs
most citizens of access to the resources controlled by the wealthy. Immense
wealth is a thief. It takes resources from the rest of the population - the best
places to live, the best food, the best educations, the best health facilities,
access to the best in nature and culture, the best professionals, and on and on.
Resources are limited and great wealth greatly limits access to resources for
most people.
It appears to me that OWS has a progressive moral vision and
view of democracy, and that what it is protesting is the disastrous effects that
have come from operating with a conservative moral, economic and political
worldview. I see OWS as primarily a moral movement, seeking economic and
political changes to carry out that moral movement - whatever those particular
changes might be.
A Moral Focus for Occupy Wall
Street
I think it is a good thing that the occupation movement
is not making specific policy demands. If it did, the movement would become
about those demands. If the demands were not met, the movement would be seen as
having failed.
It seems to me that the OWS movement is moral in nature,
that occupiers want the country to change its moral focus. It is easy to find
useful policies; hundreds have been suggested. It is harder to find a moral
focus and stick to it. If the movement is to frame itself, it should be on the
basis of its moral focus, not a particular agenda or list of policy demands. If
the moral focus of America changes, new people will be elected and the policies
will follow. Without a change of moral focus, the conservative worldview that
has brought us to the present disastrous and dangerous moment will continue to
prevail.
We Love America. We're Here to Fix It
I
see OWS as a patriotic movement, based on a deep and abiding love of country - a
patriotism that it is not just about the self-interests of individuals, but
about what the country is and is to be. Do Americans care about other citizens,
or mainly just about themselves? That's what love of America is about. I,
therefore, think it is important to be positive, to be clear about loving
America, seeing it in need of fixing and not just being willing to fix it, but
being willing to take to the streets to fix it. A populist movement starts with
the people seeing that they are all in the same boat and being ready to come
together to fix the leaks.
Publicize the
Public
Tell the truth about The Public, that nobody makes it
purely on their own without The Public, that is, without public infrastructure,
the justice system, health, education, scientific research, protections of all
sorts, public lands, transportation, resources, art and culture, trade policies,
safety nets ... That is a truth to be told day after day. It is an idea that
must take hold in public discourse. It must go beyond what I and others have
written about it and beyond what Elizabeth Warren has said in her famous video.
The Public is not opposed to The Private. The Public is what makes The Private
possible. And it is what makes freedom possible. Wall Street exists only through
public support. It has a moral obligation to direct itself to public
needs.
All OWS approaches to policy follow from such a moral focus. Here
are a handful of examples.
Democracy Should Be About the 99
Percent
Money directs our politics. In a democracy, that must
end. We need publicly supported elections, however that is to be
arranged.
Strong Wages Make a Strong
America
Middle-class wages have not gone up significantly in 30
years and there is conservative pressure to lower them. But when most people get
more money, they spend it and spur the economy, making the economy and the
country stronger, as well as making their individual lives better. This truth
needs to be central to public economic discourse.
Global
Citizenship
America has been a moral beacon to the world. It can
function as such only if it sets an example of what a nation should
be.
Do we have to spend more on the military than all other nations
combined? Do we really need hundreds of military bases
abroad?
Nature
We are part of nature. Nature
makes us and all that we love, possible. Yet, we are destroying nature through
global warming and other forms of ecological destruction, like fracking and
deep-water drilling.
At a global scale, nature is systemic: its effects are neither local
nor linear. Global warming is causing the ferocity of the monster storms,
tornados, floods, blizzards, heat waves and fires that have devastated huge
areas of our country. The hotter the atmosphere, the more evaporated water and
the more energy going into storms, tornados, and blizzards. Global warming
cannot be shown to cause any particular storm, but when a storm system forms,
global warming will ramp up the power of the storm and the amount of water it
carries. In winter, evaporated water from the overly heated Pacific will go into
the atmosphere, blow northeast over the Arctic and fall as record
snows.
We depend on nature - on clean air, water, food and a livable
climate. And we find beauty and grandeur in nature and a sense of awe that makes
life worth living. A love of country requires a love of nature. And a fair and
thriving economy requires the preservation of nature as we have known
it.
Summary
OWS is a moral and patriotic
movement. It sees Democracy as flowing from citizens caring about one another as
well as themselves and acting with both personal and social responsibility.
Democratic governance is about The Public and the liberty that The Public
provides for a thriving Private Sphere.
From such a democracy flows
fairness, which is incompatible with a hugely disproportionate distribution of
wealth. And from the sense of care implicit in such a democracy flows a
commitment to the preservation of nature.
From what I have seen of most
members of OWS, your individual concerns all flow from one moral
focus.
Elections
The Tea Party solidified the
power of the conservative worldview via elections. OWS will have no long-term
effect unless it, too, brings its moral focus to the 2012 elections. Insist on
supporting candidates that have your overall moral views, no matter what the
local issues are.
A Warning
This movement could
be destroyed by negativity, by calls for revenge, by chaos, or by having nothing
positive to say. Be positive about all things and state the moral basis of all
suggestions. Positive and moral in calling for debt relief. Positive and moral
in upholding laws, as they apply to finances. Positive and moral in calling for
fairness in acquiring needed revenue. Positive and moral in calling for clean
elections. To be effective, your movement must be seen by all of the 99 percent
as positive and moral. To get positive press, you must stress the positive and
the moral.
Remember: The Tea Party sees itself as stressing only
individual responsibility. The Occupation movement is stressing both individual
and social responsibility.
I believe and I think you believe, that most
Americans care about their fellow citizens as well as themselves. Let's find
out! Shout your moral and patriotic views out loud, regularly. Put them on your
signs. Repeat them to the media. Tweet them. And tell everyone you know to do
the same. You have to use your own language with your own framing and you have
to repeat it over and over for the ideas to sink in.
Occupy elections:
voter registration drives, town hall meetings, talk radio airtime, party
organizations, nomination campaigns, election campaigns and voting
booths.
Above all: Frame yourselves before others frame you.
++
A message from Bernie Sanders:
The Occupy
Wall Street protests are shining a national spotlight on the most powerful,
dangerous and secretive economic and political force in America.
If this
country is to break out of this horrendous recession and create the millions of
jobs we desperately need, if we are going to create a modicum of financial
stability for the future, there is no question but that the American people are
going to have to take a very hard look at Wall Street and demand fundamental
reforms. I hope these protests are the beginning of that process.
Click
here to read my recent op-ed at the Huffington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/wall-street-protests_b_1000642.html
Let
us never forget that as a result of the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior
on Wall Street, this country was plunged into the worst economic downturn since
the Great Depression. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes and life
savings as the middle class underwent an unprecedented collapse. Sadly, despite
all the suffering caused by Wall Street, there is no reason to believe that the
major financial institutions have changed their ways, or that future financial
disasters and bailouts will not happen again.
The question now becomes:
how do we change the financial system so that it works for all Americans, not
just the top one percent?
Here are several proposals that I am working
on:
1) If a financial institution is too big to fail, it is too big to
exist. Today, the six largest financial institutiions in America have assets
equivalent to 65% of the United States' GDP - $9.4 trillion dollars. It is time
to take a page from Teddy Roosevelt and break up these behemoths so that there
will be real competition in the financial industry and, when big banks fail
again, there will be no need to bail them out.
2) Put a cap on credit
card interest rates to end usury. When credit card companies charge 25- or
30-percent interest rates they are not engaged in the business of "making credit
available" to their customers. They are involved in extortion, usury and
loan-sharking.
3) The Federal Reserve needs to provide small businesses
in America with the same low-interest loans it gave to foreign banks. When Wall
Street collapsed, the Fed lent out $16 trillion in low interest loans to central
banks around the world and every major financial institution in this country.
Now, at a time when small businesses can't get the loans they need, it is time
for the Fed to create millions of American jobs by providing low-interest loans
directly to small businesses.
4) Stop Wall Street oil speculators from
artificially increasing gasoline and heating oil prices. Wall Street
speculators are buying and selling billions of barrels of oil in the energy
futures market with no intention of using a drop for any purpose other than to
make a quick buck. We have got to end excessive oil speculation and bring
needed relief to American consumers in lower oil and gas prices.
5)
Demand that Wall Street invest in the job-creating productive economy, instead
of gambling on worthless derivatives. The American people have got to make it
crystal clear to Wall Street that the era of excessive speculation is over. The
"heads, bankers win; tails, everyone else loses" financial system must
end.
6) Establish a Wall Street speculation fee on credit default swaps,
derivatives, stock options and futures. Both the economic crisis and the
deficit crisis are a direct result of the greed and recklessness on Wall
Street. Establishing a speculation fee would reduce gambling on Wall Street,
encourage the financial sector to invest in the productive economy, and
significantly reduce the deficit without harming average Americans.
The
Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are shining a light on one of the most serious
problems facing the United States -- the greed and power of Wall Street. Now is
the time for the American people to demand that the president and Congress
follow that light -- and act. The future of our economy is at
stake.
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Senator Bernie
Sanders ++
My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street
Protesters
Hit bankers where it hurts
Matt Taibbi, Rolling
Stone
October 12, 2011
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/my-advice-to-the-occupy-wall-street-protesters-20111012
I've been down to "Occupy Wall Street" twice now, and I love it. The
protests building at Liberty Square and spreading over Lower Manhattan are a
great thing, the logical answer to the Tea Party and a long-overdue middle
finger to the financial elite. The protesters picked the right target and,
through their refusal to disband after just one day, the right tactic, showing
the public at large that the movement against Wall Street has stamina, resolve
and growing popular appeal.
But... there's a but. And for me this is a
deeply personal thing, because this issue of how to combat Wall Street
corruption has consumed my life for years now, and it's hard for me not to see
where Occupy Wall Street could be better and more dangerous. I'm guessing, for
instance, that the banks were secretly thrilled in the early going of the
protests, sure they'd won round one of the messaging war.
Why? Because
after a decade of unparalleled thievery and corruption, with tens of millions
entering the ranks of the hungry thanks to artificially inflated commodity
prices, and millions more displaced from their homes by corruption in the
mortgage markets, the headline from the first week of protests against the
financial-services sector was an old cop macing a quartet of college
girls.
That, to me, speaks volumes about the primary challenge of
opposing the 50-headed hydra of Wall Street corruption, which is that it's
extremely difficult to explain the crimes of the modern financial elite in a
simple visual. The essence of this particular sort of oligarchic power is its
complexity and day-to-day invisibility: Its worst crimes, from bribery and
insider trading and market manipulation, to backroom dominance of government and
the usurping of the regulatory structure from within, simply can't be seen by
the public or put on TV. There just isn't going to be an iconic "Running Girl"
photo with Goldman Sachs, Citigroup or Bank of America – just 62 million
Americans with zero or negative net worth, scratching their heads and wondering
where the hell all their money went and why their votes seem to count less and
less each and every year.
No matter what, I'll be supporting Occupy Wall
Street. And I think the movement's basic strategy – to build numbers and stay in
the fight, rather than tying itself to any particular set of principles – makes
a lot of sense early on. But the time is rapidly approaching when the movement
is going to have to offer concrete solutions to the problems posed by Wall
Street. To do that, it will need a short but powerful list of demands. There are
thousands one could make, but I'd suggest focusing on five:
1. Break up
the monopolies. The so-called "Too Big to Fail" financial companies – now
sometimes called by the more accurate term "Systemically Dangerous Institutions"
– are a direct threat to national security. They are above the law and above
market consequence, making them more dangerous and unaccountable than a thousand
mafias combined. There are about 20 such firms in America, and they need to be
dismantled; a good start would be to repeal the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and
mandate the separation of insurance companies, investment banks and commercial
banks.
2. Pay for your own bailouts. A tax of 0.1 percent on all trades
of stocks and bonds and a 0.01 percent tax on all trades of derivatives would
generate enough revenue to pay us back for the bailouts, and still have plenty
left over to fight the deficits the banks claim to be so worried about. It would
also deter the endless chase for instant profits through computerized
insider-trading schemes like High Frequency Trading, and force Wall Street to go
back to the job it's supposed to be doing, i.e., making sober investments in
job-creating businesses and watching them grow.
3. No public money for
private lobbying. A company that receives a public bailout should not be allowed
to use the taxpayer's own money to lobby against him. You can either suck on the
public teat or influence the next presidential race, but you can't do both. Butt
out for once and let the people choose the next president and
Congress.
4. Tax hedge-fund gamblers. For starters, we need an immediate
repeal of the preposterous and indefensible carried-interest tax break, which
allows hedge-fund titans like Stevie Cohen and John Paulson to pay taxes of only
15 percent on their billions in gambling income, while ordinary Americans pay
twice that for teaching kids and putting out fires. I defy any politician to
stand up and defend that loophole during an election year.
5. Change the
way bankers get paid. We need new laws preventing Wall Street executives from
getting bonuses upfront for deals that might blow up in all of our faces later.
It should be: You make a deal today, you get company stock you can redeem two or
three years from now. That forces everyone to be invested in his own company's
long-term health – no more Joe Cassanos pocketing multimillion-dollar bonuses
for destroying the AIGs of the world.
To quote the immortal political
philosopher Matt Damon from Rounders, "The key to No Limit poker is to put a man
to a decision for all his chips." The only reason the Lloyd Blankfeins and Jamie
Dimons of the world survive is that they're never forced, by the media or anyone
else, to put all their cards on the table. If Occupy Wall Street can do that –
if it can speak to the millions of people the banks have driven into foreclosure
and joblessness – it has a chance to build a massive grassroots movement. All it
has to do is light a match in the right place, and the overwhelming public
support for real reform – not later, but right now – will be there in an
instant. ++
This story is from the October 27, 2011 issue of Rolling
Stone.
The Meagerness of the GOP Debates, the Smallness
of the President's Solutions, and the Need for a Progressive
Alternative
10/18/11
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/republican-debate-occupy-wall-street-_b_1017228.html
Republicans are debating again Tuesday night. And once again,
Americans will hear the standard regressive litany: government is bad, Medicare
and Medicaid should be cut, "Obamacare" is killing the economy, undocumented
immigrants are taking our jobs, the military should get more money, taxes should
be lowered on corporations and the rich, and regulations should be
gutted.
Four years ago the most widely-watched TV debate among Republican
aspirants attracted 3.2 million viewers. This year it's almost twice that
number. And for every viewer assume a multiplier effect as he or she shares
what's heard with friends and family.
Americans are listening more
intently this time around because they're hurting and they want answers. But the
answers they're getting from Republican candidates -- tripping over themselves
trying to appeal to hard-core regressives -- are the wrong ones.
The
correct ones aren't being aired.
That's partly because there's no primary
contest in the Democratic party. So Republicans automatically get loads of free
broadcast time to air their regressive nonsense while the Democrats get
none.
But even if the president had equal time, the debate about what to
do about the crisis would still be frighteningly narrow.
That's because
the president's answers don't nearly match up to the magnitude of the
crisis.
Without bold alternatives, Americans desperate for big solutions
are attracted to bold crackpot ideas like Herman Cain's "9-9-9" proposal, which
would raise taxes on the poor and cut them for the rich.
This is where
the inchoate Occupy Wall Street movement could come in. What's needed isn't just
big ideas. It's people fulminating for them -- making enough of a ruckus that
the ideas can't be ignored. They become part of the debate because the public
demands it.
The biggest thing the president has proposed is a plan to
create 2 million jobs. But that's not nearly big enough. Today, 14 million
Americans are out of work, and 11 million more are working part-time who'd
rather be working full time.
The nation needs a real jobs plan, one of
sufficient size and scope to do the job -- including a WPA and a Civilian
Conservation Corps, to put the millions of long-term unemployed and young
unemployed to work rebuilding America.
I'm not criticizing the president.
Without energized, mobilized, and organized progressives, even the best people
in Washington can't overcome the monied interests.
For example, America's
long-term debt needs to be addressed, but not the way the president is doing it.
He wants to lop $4 trillion off the budget over the next ten years. This almost
certainly means sacrificing education, job training, food stamps, and everything
else now listed in the so-called "non-defense discretionary" budget, as well as
cuts in Medicare and Medicaid.
What about halving the military budget
instead? It doubled after 9/11, and military contractors are intent on keeping
it in the stratosphere. So is Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Result: Defense
cuts this size won't be on the table unless progressives vociferously demand
it.
And what about really raising taxes on the rich to finance what the
nation should be doing to create a world-class workforce with world-class
wages?
Here again, the president's proposal is paltry compared to what
should be done. He wants to raise taxes on the rich by ending the Bush tax cut
for incomes over $250,000 and limiting certain deductions.
Yet income and
wealth are now more concentrated than they've been in 70 years. The top 1
percent gets over 20 percent of total income and holds over 35 percent of
national wealth; the richest 400 Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150
million Americans put together.
Meanwhile, effective tax rates on the
rich are lower than they've been in three decades.
We need to push for
higher marginal taxes on the top, and more brackets. Incomes of more than $5
million should be subject to a 70 percent rate. (The top marginal rate was never
below 70 percent between 1940 and 1980.) And these rates should apply to all
income regardless of source, including capital gains.
This would allow
for a bigger Earned Income Tax Credit (that is, a wage subsidy) for lower-income
workers. And lower taxes on middle-income workers.
There should be a 2
percent annual surtax on all fortunes over $7 million. This would only hit the
richest half a percent of Americans at the very top of the heap. And would yield
$70 billion a year -- enough to improve our schools and make college affordable
to everyone.
And a tax on financial transactions. Even a tiny one of
one-half of one percent would generate $200 billion a year. That's enough to
make a major contribution toward early childhood education for every American
toddler.
The president's healthcare law is a good start but it's not the
solution, either. We need Medicare for all. Medicare has lower administrative
costs than private insurers. And it has the bargaining heft to reduce drug and
hospital costs as well as shift the system from fee-for-services to payments for
healthy outcomes.
The president's financial reforms are also a beginning
but they're way too weak to stop Wall Street depredations. (At this moment, for
example, no one even knows the exposure of Wall Street banks to European banks
and, through them, Europe's debt crisis.)
We need to resurrect the
Glass-Steagall Act and break up the biggest banks.
The president has
talked about fixing Social Security by raising the retirement age. But the best
way to ensure the program's long-term solvency is to lift the ceiling on income
subject to Social Security payroll taxes (now $106,800.) Yet this, too, is off
the table.
Workers also need more bargaining power. The ratio of
corporate profits to wages is now higher than it's been since before the Great
Depression. Workers should be able to form unions through a simple up-or-down
vote, without delay.
None of this is possible without strong and
consistent pressure from the progressive side. Regressives are setting the
agenda.
The president isn't even talking about the environment any more.
Yet climate change is a reality, and our survival depends on reducing carbon
emissions.
We should tax carbon-based fuels, and divide the revenues
equally among all Americans. It's the best way to get us to switch to non-carbon
fuels, and stimulate research and development of them. And by dividing the
revenues, the typical American would come out ahead even though some prices
would increase.
Finally, we need public financing of elections and strict
limits on so-called "independent" expenditures. Corporations should have to get
the approval of every shareholder before spending corporate funds - the
shareholders' money - on politics.
I have no idea whether the Occupiers
will morph into the kind of progressive force necessary to put these ideas into
play. But if Americans stand together and demand real reform, we can have a real
national debate in 2012.
Tonight's Republican debate may attract lots of
viewers. It need not capture their minds. ++
12 Most Absurd Laws Used to Stifle the Occupy Wall St. Movement Around the CountryAs
protests spring up in cities across the country, authorities are thinking up
creative ways to contain this peaceful uprising.
Rania Khalek,
AlterNet
October 14, 2011
1) No Snoozing In Public
Most cities have an anti-camping ordinance on the books that prohibits camping or sleeping in public spaces, particularly public parks, to minimize the risk of nighttime criminal activity. But the ordinances are frequently used to cleanse cities of the inconvenient and uncomfortable scenery of homeless people; police in San Francisco are known for enforcing the city's camping ordinance primarily against the homeless.
But now, all over the country, anti-camping ordinances are being used to arrest and deter protesters from occupying public spaces.
Local news stations covering Occupy Dallas report that police plan to begin enforcing the city's ordinance against sleeping in public, first with warnings, then tickets, and eventually arrest. Due to a city ordinance that prohibits sleeping in Los Angeles public parks, Occupy LA activists move their tents to the sidewalk every night, and move them back to the park every morning. Occupy Chicago protesters have resorted to staying awake in shifts, then switching with one another to sleep in cars or someone's home nearby to get around the ban against sleeping on the public sidewalk.
2) No Umbrellas
Officials in various cities are citing ordinances that prohibit the erection of permanent or semi-permanent structures, referring to tents, tarps, sleeping bags, and in one city, umbrellas.
According to Seattle's newsweekly, The Stranger, the Seattle Police Department warned protesters that, "You can't have an umbrella open unless you're standing and holding it," otherwise they are considered structures and will be confiscated. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn later clarified the reasoning in a statement, saying, “As for umbrellas, police were concerned that protest participants were using umbrellas and tarps to create makeshift tents to evade the no-camping rule."
In a city known for its heavy rains, it’s rather extreme to ban the use of umbrellas. But the absence of tents, tarps and even umbrellas during downpours in New York City and Washington DC has yet to discourage protesters.
3) Curfews
Fortunately for the Occupy Wall Street protesters in NYC, the privately owned Zuccotti Park is open 24 hours a day, unlike city-owned parks that are usually closed in the late night to early morning hours.
In city and state-owned parks occupied by protesters throughout the country, authorities are using park curfews to their advantage. Just after 3am on the morning of Friday, Oct. 14, Denver police raided the Occupy Denver encampment citing an 11pm to 5am curfew at state parks, making at least 21 arrests. A similar 11pm curfew in Iowa led to 32 arrests on Oct. 9. The same thing happened at Occupy Sacramento.
4) No Open Flames
The "burn ban" generally applies to outdoor cooking, like grilling in the park, and is strictly followed by Wall Street protestors who refuse to give NYPD any reason to evict them. In the early days of Occupy San Francisco, SFPD issued protesters a notice of the local laws and ordinances they were allegedly violating, to justify a pending police crackdown. Included in the list was a “fire code prohibiting open flames that applied to outdoor cooking setups.” The lesson here is no barbequing.
5) No Sitting or Lying Down
SFPD’s notice also informed protesters that they were in violation of a sit-lie law that prohibits sitting or laying down on San Francisco sidewalks between 7am and 11pm. This criminal offense can result in a fine starting at $50 and possibly lead to jail time.
6) No Obstructing the Pedestrian Walkway
Occupy Chicago faced major obstacles early on but has managed to remain intact. The group initially had trouble finding a place to occupy due to the city’s lack of publicly available land. Occupiers ultimately chose to set up camp on the public sidewalk surrounding Chicago’s Federal Reserve building. At first, police warned them not to lean up against the building, but that quickly evolved into a ban on the area 6 feet from the building (almost the entire sidewalk), followed by the enforcement of a Chicago city ordinance preventing people from blocking the public way, aka sleeping or sitting on the sidewalk. (In NYC this is called “impeding pedestrian traffic.”)
7) No Private Belongings in Public Space
Chicago’s spur-of-the-moment version of San Francisco’s sit-lie law was made to apply to the private belongings of protesters as well. According to In These Times, this forced them into “packing their gear into backpacks or putting it onto mobile carts for temporary relocation.” An update on the Occupy Chicago Web site alerted activists to “Occupy Chicago, Phase 2 – Mobilization,” a new plan that would “make all things there 100% mobile, all bodies must be constantly moving, and absolutely no sitting/sleeping.”
8) Unaffordable Fees
The city of Dallas, Texas, demanded that Occupy Dallas fork up $1 million for liability insurance if they want to keep their permit and continue occupying Pioneer Plaza past 5pm Friday (Oct. 14). That’s quite a hefty price for to pay the working class, jobless and indebted students who make up the majority of protesters. As a result, Occupy Dallas took the city to court for unconstitutionally restricting their “right to peaceably demonstrate in traditional public forums."
Ultimately they reached a deal that allows them to stay in Pioneer Plaza until Sunday (Oct. 16), then relocate to a spot behind City Hall until mid-December.
9) No Potties
Occupy Dallas protesters have been walking a half-mile to use the nearest toilet since they started camping out in Pioneer Plaza because they could not afford the $1 million permit that would have allowed them to bring in a Porta-Potty. Now, that is commitment!
10) No Masks
In NYC at least five protesters were arrested for violating a state statute that dates back 150 years and prohibits masked gatherings of two or more people, with the exception of masquerade balls. With Halloween just weeks away, it will be interesting to see how the NYPD handles masked elementary kids hopped up on Sweet Tarts and Gummy Bears.
11) No Amplification…Mic Check?
After hearing that NYC protesters were required to have a permit to amplify sound, I would never in a million years have imagined a way around the bullhorn, microphone or speakers. I’m still mesmerized by the brilliance of the human microphone, in which listeners loudly repeat a speaker's words in unison. I don’t think anyone, especially the NYPD, saw that coming.
12) Mass Arrests, Excessive Force
Weeks ago, the nation watched as the NYPD trapped and arrested over 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge. Protesters accused police of deliberately leading them to march onto the bridge only to arrest them hours later, suggesting that the move was coordinated from the top. Prior to the arrests, many Americans watched in disgust as videos surfaced of officers indiscriminately macing protestors in Zuccotti Park. More recently, an officer was caught on tape aggressively attacking protesters, including journalists, with a riot baton. Early this week, almost 150 people at Occupy Boston were arrested following a police raid that left some injured.
While the purpose of these tactics is to scare protesters and those who are considering joining the movement from participating, the opposite has occurred, galvanizing protesters' solidarity and resolve.
When I spoke to Chris Hedges in Washington DC’s Freedom Plaza last week, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist remarked, "Those white-shirted cops in New York are the best publicity department those protesters have, because the vast majority of Americans sympathize with the movement, and when they see those cops coming in and whacking defenseless people, it just makes them angry.” ++
~ Barack Obama
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